Bear Tracks Help

What was called the “Schedule Builder” in the previous version of Bear Tracks is now called “Shopping Cart” or “Cart”. It functions the same way as it used to, but it is labelled differently. You can find it under the “Manage Classes” tile. 

When you select a class from the search, you’ll notice a button that says “Cart," for each section of the class. Selecting this button will add the class to your cart. You can add classes to your cart prior to your enrolment dates to get your schedule ready.

You can still register in a lecture-lab-seminar combination that best fits your schedule, but rather than registering for each component (e.g. lab) separately, you’ll enroll in them as a package. When you search for a class that has a lecture, lab and seminar component, it will bring up all possible combinations. You are able to choose the combination that best fits your schedule. See page 9 of the Enrolment, Watch List and Planner Quick Reference Guide for more details.

This information is still available, but it is located in a different spot than in the previous version of Bear Tracks.

Example: Clicking on “LEC-C1-22747” will provide you with class information you’re looking for. You can access lab or seminar information by clicking on the related lab or seminar.

You'll notice where there is a notepad icon beside the Lecture, (see below), there are Class Notes associated with it. Where there is no icon, there are no Class Notes.

If you want to start by looking up all classes for a given subject (e.g. Kinesiology) for a term, you can use the “Additional Ways to Search” function underneath the search bar. This allows you to select a subject and bring up all classes for that term. The  “Additional Ways to Search” function also allows you to limit by catalog number (e.g. 101) and instructor last name. You can then apply any additional filters that you want (time, career etc). 

The class search brings up a maximum of 50 results at one time. If your search brings up more than 50 results, you will be notified. Some easy filters to narrow your search are "Subject" and "Course Career".

Add the Class to your Watch List

You can add this class to your Watch List by using the “Add to Watch List” function in the Shopping Cart. If a spot opens in this section of the class, you will receive a notification via email or SMS and will have an opportunity to enrol. If you use this option, please be sure to set up your Notification Preferences.

Enroll in a separate section of the same class

Alternatively, you can use the “Class Search” function and see if there are any other sections of that class with spots available. From the “Class Search”, if there is a section for the class with spots available and it fits into your calendar, you can enroll in the class by clicking the “Enrol” button.

Enroll in a different class

If you’re unable to find a section of the class with spots available, you can try to add another class to fill that spot in your schedule. If you’ve identified other classes you might be interested in taking, search for the class using the subject and catalog number (e.g. ECON 101). If there is a section with open spots that fits into your calendar, you can enroll by clicking the “Enrol” button. 

If you’re not sure which alternative classes you might want to take, you can:

1. Review the requirements for your degree to determine which classes fulfill those requirements.
2. Use the “Additional Ways to Search” function in the Class Search in Bear Tracks to review the class offerings for a subject you’re interested in (e.g. Philosophy).

Once you’ve identified which classes you want to take as an alternative, you can search for them and see if any fit into your calendar. If the class fits into your calendar, you can then enrol.

Pre-enrolment Recommendation: It is strongly recommended that you identify alternative sections of a class or classes and add them to your “Shopping Cart” before your enrolment dates. This will ensure you don’t spend time determining which classes you might want to/need to take during the enrolment period. 

Using the “Swap” function in Bear Tracks under “Manage Classes” will allow you to identify a class you want to drop and swap for a class you want to enroll in. By using this tool, you avoid the risk of the class filling up while you’re in the process of dropping a class. See the “Swap” section of the Class Changes Quick Reference Guide for more details.

Note: You are able to use the “Swap” function to swap one class for another. But the “Swap” function will not allow you to swap a class component in a multiple component class (lecture, lab, seminar) for another component. For example, you could swap ECON 101 for POL S 101 using the “Swap” function. But you would not be able to swap one seminar for CHEM 264 with another seminar in CHEM 264. In that case, you would need to swap the lecture-seminar combination you enrolled in for CHEM 264 for a different lecture-seminar combination of CHEM 264.

To register for classes, you do not need to use the Planner. Instead, the Planner is an optional long-term planning tool that can be used to select the courses you are planning on taking during your studies at the University of Alberta. You can think of it as a way of putting a sticky note on the courses you want or need to take at some point during your degree.

When setting up your draft schedule in preparation for Fall 2021/Winter 2022, you can go to "Manage Classes > Class Search and Enrol" and add classes to your cart. You can see what has been added to your cart under "Manage Classes > Shopping Cart and Watch List."